SCOTTISH Secretary David Mundell is facing calls to intervene to safeguard jobs at the troubled BiFab engineering firm.

Unions have held talks with Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson at Holyrood about the business.

They want Davidson to use her influence with the UK Government to get ministers to step in to secure the jobs of BiFab workers at yards in Fife and Arnish.

Unions said in February that they had been told that 260 jobs were to go by the end of May, with the yards facing full closure a month later.

A takeover by a Canadian engineering firm was later brokered by the Scottish Government, which said the deal with JV Driver and DF Barnes would allow the yards to seek new fabrication and construction work in the marine, renewables and energy sectors.

However, the GMB union says the UK Government must also intervene in light of a new threat to jobs.

The union says no new work has been secured by the contractor, DF Barnes, and the remaining workforce would be cut again to just a small team handling basic maintenance.

GMB Scotland secretary Gary Smith urged Mundell must use his role as Scottish Secretary to deliver a fresh rescue package, and said he should consider subsidies for the yards in Fife and Arnish, which have completed renewable energy projects such as the £2.6 billion Beatrice Offshore Windfarm.

He said: "We want to know what the UK Government is going to do to support manufacturing jobs in the sector and what pressure Ruth Davidson can put on her Tory colleagues at Westminster.

"We are disappointed in the lack of support from David Mundell and hope that Ruth Davidson can get him to focus on what support could be available.

"The renewables industry depends on subsidies.

"We need this to focus on what support we can get for the manufacturing sector for firms like BiFab."

The union leader met Davidson at Holyrood last week for talks about the future of the BiFab.

Smith said Mundell has failed to take any significant action over the firm.

In response, a UK Government spokesman said: “We are committed to supporting a thriving renewables sector and are investing more than £2.5bn in low carbon innovation by 2021, helping deliver opportunities for companies such as BiFab and others in the supply chain.

“In the clean growth strategy we reaffirmed our support for offshore wind by working with industry as they develop an ambitious plan which could result in 10 gigawatts of new capacity in the 2020s.

“We are making up to £557 million of annual support available for innovative offshore wind projects, providing industry with the certainty they need to invest in such schemes.”

A Scottish Tory spokesman added: “Ruth Davidson met with BiFab this week and fully intends to help them in any way she can.”